Issue - meetings

Sonia Drozd, Strategic Managers, Substance Misuse, and Jill Williams, Shared Care Coordinator, jointly presented the report and explained that addiction to medicine (ATM) was the dependence on prescription and / or over-the-counter drugs that were not needed for pain control.  Medication dependence could impact on health, mental wellbeing or result in overdose and could also produce risk for the community, for example through people driving whilst drowsy.  The point was made regarding a lack of data, both locally and nationally, in terms of the number of people with ATM and of the level of their addiction.

Barking and Dagenham was one of Public Health England’s pilot sites for addressing the issue of ATM.  The aims of the pilot were to identify the number of people affected locally and where they were obtaining the medication from, raising awareness amongst primary care and health professionals of medication addiction and prescribing issues, delivery of better support to patients and to monitor the effectiveness of the treatment pathway.

It was noted that not all those affected or seeking support would present themselves to the Substance Misuse Team and many could be obtaining support elsewhere, for example through GP surgeries.

The Board also discussed its concerns around the addiction to non opiate based pain control medication, such as paracetamol and ibuprofen, and noted that the pilot would initially concentrate on the opiate based products.

The Board:  

(i)  Noted the report;

(ii)  Noted that a further report would be presented to the Board in early 2017 on the outcome of the Public Health England pilot; and

(iii)  Requested that an interim report be presented to the Substance Abuse Sub-Group to give an indication of the number of people addicted to over-the-counter opiate based medication in the Borough and also if any data was emerging in regard to the prevalence of addiction to non opiate based pain relief medication, such as paracetamol and ibuprofen.